Britain: 4th Anniversary Syrian Revolution Demonstration

This demonstration initiated by the Syrian Solidarity Movement as well as Citizens UK (1) was organised in
opposition to the Assad regime in Syria. There were 1.500 people on the demonstration, mainly Syrians nationals or refugees of which there are 6.000 in Britain.

The march from Marble Arch to Downing Street had placards and banners denouncing Assad for murdering many Syrians and causing
untold misery to millions people in Syria. (2) There were many chants in English like “Down with Assad” and “For a Free Syria” as well in Arabic. Speakers from Citizens UK
reported about their campaign to have as many Syrian refugees as possible admitted to Britain. At the moment they have the support of 4 local authorities.

The RCIT participated in the demonstration because we are opposed to the barbaric torture and oppression of the Syrian people
by the Assad regime. We support the struggle of the masses to free them from Assad’s Regime and are for its overthrow through revolutionary means. We advocate the setting up of workers councils
and defence guards to protect the masses against the Assad regime.

“The RCIT has supported from the beginning the
Revolution of the Syrian workers and peasants against the bourgeois dictatorship of the Assad regime. We support the popular struggle – even if it takes place under non-working class leaderships
– to bring down the dictatorship. We warn against any illusions in the secular and religious bourgeois and petty-bourgeois leaderships of the opposition (FSA, Al-Nusra etc.). We support the
massive formation of Local Coordination Councils and call for their transformation into action councils (like the Soviets in Russia in 1917) and armed militias of the workers and peasants which
should coordinate nation-wide. Our perspective is the struggle for a workers government allied with the peasants and urban poor and based on local councils and militias. This however is only
possible if a revolutionary workers party is built in time to lead the workers and oppressed to power.”(3)

Unfortunately the so-called “left” was mostly absent. Many of them have taken a conscious decision to side with Assad against
the masses with their argument of “anti-imperialism” which in fact is a cover for them siding with Assad against the masses. The question of dialectics escapes them and they turn out to be
formalists of the worse kind. Authentic anti-imperialism is always organically combined with support for revolutionary democratic liberation struggles. (4)

As a result the pro-Eastern social-imperialists – particularly the Stalinists of the Communist Party and of the CPGB-ML and
ultra-lefts like the RCG – side with the Assad regime. This list also includes the miniscule pseudo-Trotskyist sect Socialist Fight/LCFI who more than any other group take up support for Assad in
their Stalinophile caricature of “anti-imperialism”. Others including the SWP/IST, SPEW/CWI or SA/IMT, while refusing to be cheerleaders of Assad, fail to support the uprising of the Syrian
people. Naturally the pro-Western social-imperialist social democratic parties like the Labour Party also don’t raise a finger in support for the Syrian Revolution.

The RCIT advocates: (5)

* Victory to the Syrian Revolution! Down with the Assad Dictatorship!

* For international solidarity with the Syrian rebel and popular movement!

* Stop the Russian and Chinese support for the murderous Assad dictatorship!

* USA, UK, and France: No military attacks against Syria!

* Down with the Zionist Apartheid State!

* Solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle! Support the resistance against the imperialist-backed military
dictatorship in Egypt!

*For a Workers Government allied with the
Peasants and Urban Poor and based on local councils and militias!